PC Upgrade

[Sobriquet.]

Well, my dad finally gimme the go ahead to fully upgrade the PC. We upgraded the RAM and Harddrive a while back, but it still didnt change the fact that we have a crappy Athlon XP 1.25GHZ CPU

There are many tech people here so I was wondering whether you could answer a few questions.

1. Which CPU is better AMDs or Pentiums? I usually run multiple programs such as a music player, photoshop, internet browsers etc.

2. Where do you find the components, I have a few sites but I just want to see what you recommend (UK only if possible).

Because my processor is so old I need to get a new motherboard for it. However, I would like to keep my RAM which wasnt long ago upgraded, I have PC3200 RAM, which I believe is DDR400? Just thought it would be useful information.

Also, im probably going to need a new graphics card as I have a AGP slot, but any cheap one will probably be better than the one I go now

Thanks for any information :happy:

 

[b1gapl]

Either company can handle what you intend to do. It's just a matter of preference and your budget.

ebuyer.com, scan.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk is a good site to look at.

Since you want to stay with your current ram, I think you should go with socket 939. What I would do, is try to sell it, so you can go for DDR2 ram.

But first we need a budget.

 

[Sobriquet.]

Well I recently bought a 360, but I can push to about £150.

Ebuyer does some good packages, too bad they dont come with fans >_>

 

[saltynay]

lol £150 definately going to have to do an amd build then

cpu: athlon64x2 3600+
motherboard: nforce 4
graphics card: 7600gt (definitely have to sell your old card)
hsf: scythe ninja (thermal paste artic silver 5)

 

[Sobriquet.]

lol £150 definately going to have to do an amd build then

cpu: athlon64x2 3600+
motherboard: nforce 4
graphics card: 7600gt (definitely have to sell your old card)
hsf: scythe ninja (thermal paste artic silver 5)

Well when I was checking out prices on Ebuyer, I could get a processor and motherboard for about £90, but then I realised id have to get a fan and others. **** i could buy a PC with the money in my bank but im saving it for driving lessons and rainy days

 

[b1gapl]

But then he said he wanted to keep his DDR ram, so that means he's stuck with socket 939, which the X2 3600+, is only on socket AM2.

edit: Which processor and motherboard did you pick for 90?

 

[saltynay]

he can sell the ram and get one stick of something decent and then dual-channel later

 

[Sobriquet.]

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz) Socket 939 1MB L2 Cache OEM Processor

MSI K8N Neo4-F SKT939 nForce4 chipset Dual DDR400 PCI-E ATX

But then i'd need a new graphics card.

 

[b1gapl]

XFX 8500GT 256MB DDR2 DVI VGA 450MHz Core PCI-E

or

Sparkle 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV Dual DVI-I PCI-E

heres a HSF for your OEM processor:
Arctic Cooling (AC-FRZ-64P) Freezer64 Pro Socket 754 939 940 CPU Cooler with Heat pipe cooling Pro Ver

 

[saltynay]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Dual-Core Socket 939 OEM Processor will give you much better performance